I’m a freshman in high school and I’ve been working hard to prepare myself for a finance career that would most likely include a couple years of investment banking.
Any advice? I’ve heard that if you don’t get into a top Ivy you’re screwed…and I don’t think I’m getting into an Ivy just because of the sheer competition. Here’s a small objective resume:
Of course there’s still volunteer work, clubs, awards, sports, and other stuff in terms of my subjective resume, but I haven’t cured cancer or saved a village in Kenya (unlike 99% of the tryhards on this forum<–no offence lol!), so there’s a pretty slim chance of making it to any ivy except maybe Cornell, Brown, or UPenn…
Anyways! Any advice from current investment bankers or general finance majors is greatly appreciated :’)
IMO, you do not have to attend an Ivy to have a successful finance career. My son graduated from SMU, beat out kids from Princeton, Cornell, and Vanderbilt for his first job as an analyst with a major bank. Year 2 was ranked # 1 in his class. Sometimes attending a school with a good undergrad bus./finance reputation that offers opportunity to participate in unique programs is better than banging your head against the wall of competition at an Ivy. I know of highly successful young analysts and associates from schools like Texas, Indiana, and SMU who have no regrets about their decision to attend a “second” tier school.
Penn is very good for IB placement, especially Wharton. Cornell and Brown will both give you a chance into getting in too. With your profile so far, it doesn’t look like other ivies are out of the reach either.
Also, I would bet a GS offer that your interests will change by the time you graduate.
Thanks for the mental support @3boymomma Kudos to your son, btw! He seems like a very hard worker, and your story gives me courage because I, too, am a very dedicated student
I actually have been strongly thinking of NYU Stern as it’s ranked up with the ivies. However, it seems very easy to get into based on the people accepted on this forum (1800 SAT); if so, it seems like a great school with an easy acceptance. Alas, it must be too good to be true
@puzzled123 Thanks for the response, but I still don’t think my actual application is up to par (ignoring SAT and GPA). Like I haven’t earned major awards, am not the president of every freaking club in existence, have not created my own clubs, haven’t really done anything special. I’ve been thinking of opening an entrepreneurship, but even that probably wouldn’t be enough.
Plus I’m screwed because I’m an ORM, yet go to a standard public school unlike all the rich prep kids on this forum
Haha I bet you can hear the sas through your screen, I don’t mean to be rude to rich people but it’s true–if you’re white and poor, say goodbye to ivies.
If you’re white and poor, top schools will want you to boost their economic diversity, especially if you come from a rural or urban area.
Based on your moniker, I assume you’re a boy, but if not, look into Wellesley and Smith.
NYU Stern requires high ACT or SAT scores, and strong (700s) math2 scores on the Subject Test if you want to have a shot. It also does not meet need, so that your family may not be able to afford it.
Baruch is a solution if you can get into Honors or Macaulay, but living in the city is super expensive and it’s a totally commuter school.
Target Schools: Ivy League, duke, NYU, northwestern, stanford, Berkeley, top liberal art colleges, georgetown, UVA, UMichigan , Uchicago… I may be missing some.
You can try to break into Wall Street through other colleges, but it will be a lot tougher.
At this point, focus on getting an elite GPA/SAT, as well as solid extracurriculars.
It’s pretty hard to project where you will be based solely off of your HS GPA. NYU Stern is definitely requires high standardized scores to get into as the mean SAT score is 1432/1600 and is definitely one of the top target schools for IB/Finance. @deeeznuts rattled off a pretty good list of targets for finance majors which is important when taking into account the career placement of the average student.
As @3boymomma mentioned however, you don’t have to go to a target school but it helps A LOT. Schools like SMU aren’t a target in the traditional sense, but have extremely strong and tight knit alumni networks which help monumentally during recruiting (being top of his class didn’t hurt either).
Kudos to your son, btw! He seems like a very hard worker, and your story gives me courage because I, too, am a very dedicated student 